Paddy’s weekend bites

Midweek St. Patrick’s days are odd beasts, and despite having to work on Friday it still feels like I’ve had an extra-long weekend. Post-Inishfood tiredness meant a much-needed lie-in on Thursday morning, and, of course, a big feed. Our brunch of choice before heading out for a mooch round Phoenix Park Goatsbridge smoked trout, the award-winning (yay!) Daily Spud’s potato farls, with some sauteed spinach for token healthiness.

Thursday evening saw us adjourn to the finest pub in the city for craft beer, Bananagrams and a delicious feed of pork pies, steak, fish and chips, and Crowes’s Farm bangers and mash, and Murphy’s ice cream. No photos, alas, due to extreme hunger (and slight squiffiness).

Temple Bar is buzzing on Saturdays at the moment, what with the relocation of the food stalls from Meeting House Square while it’s being excavated and roofed. A lightning visit to the Rahara Farm stall in its temporary home on Curved Street yielded some lovely lean minced beef, two lamb chops, and, best of all, a free portion of chicken wings, thrown in “to make sure ye come back”. They made for perfect rugby-watching fodder, glazed with a mixture of whiskey and honey (about equal parts, I mixed to taste!) baked in the oven for 35 minutes, and washed down with a pint of Helvick Gold.

I’m excited to get stuck in to some new recipes this coming week with the rest of my Rahara bounty – especially as I also took delivery of my first Home Organics box today. Watch this space.